Identification products such as smart cards and RFID tags are used widely in fields such as transport (ticketing, road tolling, baggage tagging), finance (debit and credit cards, electronic purse, merchant card), communications (SIM card for GSM phone), and tracking (access control, inventory management, asset tracking). Radio Frequency IDentification (RFID) is an automatic identification method, relying on storing and remotely retrieving data using devices called RFID tags or transponders. An RFID tag is an object that e.g. can be attached to or incorporated into a product, animal, or person e.g. for the purpose of identification using radio waves. Chip-based RFID tags contain e.g. silicon chips and antennas. Passive tags require no internal power source, whereas active tags require a power source.
International standard ISO14443A is an industry standard for contactless smart cards. ISO14443A-compliant products provide RF communication technology for transmitting data between a card or tag and a reader device. For example, in electronic ticketing for public transport, travelers just wave their card over a reader at the turnstiles or entry point, benefiting from improved convenience and speed in the ticketing process. Such products are set to be the key to individual mobility in the future, supporting multiple applications including road tolling, airline tickets, access control and many more.
Evolving from a combination of contactless identification and networking technologies, Near Field Communication (NFC) (see for example the standard ISO 18092) is a very short-range wireless technology, for distances measured in centimeters, and is optimised for intuitive, easy and secure communications between various devices without user configuration. In order to make two devices communicate, users bring them close together or even make them touch. The devices' NFC interfaces will automatically connect and configure themselves to form a peer-to-peer network. NFC can also bootstrap other protocols like Bluetooth™ or Wireless Ethernet (WiFi) by exchanging the configuration and session data. NFC is compatible with contactless smart card platforms. This enables NFC devices to read information from these cards, making contactless smart cards the ideal solution for bringing information and vouchers into the NFC world.
NFC devices can also operate like a contactless card making them compatible with the huge installed infrastructure of ISO14443A-compliant systems. This functionality is called card emulation. Secure NFC combines NFC applications with smart card security. Devices with secure NFC act like a contactless smart card with cryptographic capabilities. This means that confidential data, and data that represents values, is stored in a secure memory area and always stays on the card. Authentication is performed by the NFC device itself and transmitted data can be encrypted by the NFC device using a private encryption key stored in the device's secure memory.
The Near Field Communication Forum (NFC Forum) is a non-profit industry association founded by Nokia Corporation, Royal Philips Electronics and Sony Corporation to advance the use of NFC short-range wireless interaction in consumer electronics, mobile devices and PCs. The NFC Forum will promote implementation and standardization of NFC technology to ensure interoperability between devices and services.
To store NFC Forum defined data (called NDEF-NFC Data Exchange Format) e.g. inside contactless cards or RFID tags four different draft specifications have been made called: “Type 1 Tag Operational”, “Type 2 Tag Operational”, “Type 3 Tag Operational” and “Type 4 Tag Operational”.
This invention is related to contactless cards or RFID tags that are compliant to the “Type 4 Tag Operational” specification Version 1.0 of the NFC Forum, dated Mar. 13, 2007.
There may be a need for an alternative way of storing and reading data in transponders such as contactless cards or RFID tags. Especially, there may be a need for a way of storing additional data in transponders such that the additional data is not accessible using a reader device which is compliant with a standardization protocol such as the “Type 4 Tag Operational” draft specification of the NFC Forum and such that it does not interfere with data stored in compliance with the standardization protocol. Furthermore, there may be a need for corresponding transponder devices, read/write devices, computer program elements and computer readable media for implementing such storing/reading method.